The Dress

Yesterday when I went to get my dress fitted I realized that I will be a married woman in less than 45 days.  For the past couple of months with school, work, and planning the wedding; I never really had the time to think. As I looked at myself in the mirror with a big white wedding dress, I must say, I felt a level of fright within. I presume it is panic because I had never had that feeling before. After the fitting I took a minute to analyze what I was actually feeling. I came to the conclusion that it was a feeling of excitement mixed with a feeling of anxiety. I believe I felt this way because wearing my wedding a beautiful wedding dress was my dream since I was a little girl. When looked at myself in the mirror I realized my dream was about to become a reality. Today we are only 45 days away from the big day and I couldn’t be more excited.

I try not to think about it too much because I don’t want to be like most brides that get super caught up in their weddings, or as most may call it, a “bridezilla”. Fortunately I have been busy with work and school, that the wedding planning I have been doing on my spare time and hasn’t hampered with my life at all. My fiancé is very pleased with how we have handled the wedding planning because we have done every step together and calmly. I hope that when the day comes it will be everything I ever dreamed of and more.

A couple of my bridesmaids and close friends are planning my bachelorette party in Las Vegas in the middle of November. I am a little concerned because in the middle of November I have a lot of term papers due. Hopefully I can get them done before then and not have to worry about it in Vegas.

Bridezilla-  a bride-to-be who focuses so much on the event that she becomes difficult and obnoxious.

Hampered- 1.to hold back; hinder; impede: A steady rain hampered the progress of the work. 2.to interfere with; curtail: The dancers' movements were hampered by their elaborate costumes.

My Little brother

Every week the one thing I look forward to the most is attending my little brother’s soccer games. Tomorrow he is scheduled to play two games back to back and I just can’t wait. I don’t know why but they are so exhilarating. Although it is a game between only 10 year old kids, watching them is very electrifying. My little brother plays right-front- forward for the team, and not just because he is my brother I am saying this, but he is the best forward on the team. His dreams are to be a professional soccer player, and at the paste he is going at right now I think he can achieve it. He is in the U11 for the San Jose Earth Quakes team, in this team they have the best soccer players who are under 11 years old, and thus when they play everyone is excited to see them. Tomorrow is going to be a very important day for them because there will be sponsors at their game picking kids they want to help to achieve their goal in their professional soccer career. It would be amazing if he were to be picked because, although they are just kids, this is an opportunity that can help shape their entire future.

Everyone in my family is convinced that Manny, my brother, has what it takes to be one of the sponsored kids. He is disciplined and very talented for his young age. The good thing about Manny also is that he just doesn’t only want to be a soccer player, but he also wants to be a doctor. Sometimes I admire his keenness to be successful, which is something many kids are now lacking as they grow older. I remember when I was his age I was just as enthusiastic about school and my future career in law, but over the years it seems as if it has slowly gloomed way. I hope his enthusiasm lasts him his entire life.

Electrifying-exciting

Keenness- eagerness; enthusiasm

School and Work

            A couple weeks ago I was reading an article in the New York Times by Carla Rivera.  In this article she stated that in California only 14.8% of full-time college students actually graduate within four years. The amount of time it’s now taking college students to graduate has doubled. Approximately 60% of full-time students now graduate within an eight year time frame. This is amazing to me; luckily I fall in that 14.8% of full-time students graduating within a four year time frame. It has been very hard and exhausting at times to be a full time student and also have a full time job. In the article I read that about 75% of college students now also have a full-time job aside from school, this is probably the biggest reason why it is taking so many students many more years to obtain their degree.

            I began working at the age of sixteen at an amusement park. Back then I was only working part-time so work never was an issue. Then, when I graduated high school and went on to college I wanted to have more money therefore, I decided to take on more hours at a retail store as a cashier. At the beginning handling school and work was very easy because the tasks given to me at work were simple and didn’t require more of me. However, a few years later, in my junior year of college I wanted to be completely independent and decided to get a full time job that required more responsibilities. The first semester I was certain working full time and going to school full time was not going to be an issue, yet by the end of the semester I realized I was erroneous. At the end of the semester when it came down to term papers and final exams I felt that I had no time to study or finish my work. I was doing scantily at work thinking about school and I was doing poorly at school thinking about work. When the semester was over and grades came back it became clear to me that full-time school and full-time work is not such a good idea. Although my parents were willing to help me out through school I felt a sense of independence I just couldn’t bring myself to let go. So, instead of reducing hours at work I decided to enlist in only three classes a semester and make up the other classes during winter breaks. It has been working out for me so far and I hope it remains that way.

Erroneous- wrong; incorrect  

Scantily- Poorly; inadequately

Yoga Class

It is extremely hard for me to think of topics to write about. I have so many things going on in my life, yet finding something interesting to write about is so complicated each week. I think I will write about my Friday mornings yoga class. I had never taken any type of yoga class in the past and didn’t really know what it was like. This semester I decided to try it since I needed the unit anyway. My expectations of this class were way off. I thought that yoga was a relaxation method where the main concentration is your breathing and stretching. I never thought it would be such a complicated process. I have only had that class about four weeks and I have learning so much about it. Let me tell you, it is not the easiest tasks in the world. The different positions are very complex and entail a lot of work. My first three times in the class instead of achieving relaxation, I achieved frustration. The instructor made us do many positions that I didn’t even know my body can do. Instead of slowing down my heart beat, it elevated it as if I were jogging. Luckily, today for the first time I actually fared to control my movements and somewhat regulate my breathing. However, just when I was getting into the yoga routine the instructor incorporated more complex movements that again through me off. Hopefully in the next class I can manage to control the new movements, if not I will never take yoga again in my life!

Fared- Verb: Perform in a specified way in a particular situation or over a particular period of time

Entail- to cause or involve by necessity or as a consequence

Mortgage Fraud

It is amazing to me how so many individuals are being scammed in the housing market. I work as a loan officer for an independent company and on a daily basis I hear of new stories where families were scammed out of $4000, $ 5000 and even $10000.

After the housing market crashed in 2009 many people became desperate to save their homes and began looking for help. People were willing to pay thousands of dollars in order to stay in their home. As the need for mortgage assistance increased, the amount of people willing to help also increased. Many of these small companies were not looking to help the people; instead they saw a way of taking advantage of their distress. These companies promised people that they would save their home and lower their mortgage payments. Other companies promised to take the bank to court and lower their principle balance to the current market value, which is unreasonable to think of. After hearing all of these promises the people became hopeful and foolish.

People were charged for loan modifications that were never achieved, thus they ended up losing their house. Others were charged for civil law suits against the bank that were never even taken to court. Some companies even disappeared after receiving the money from the clients and did this all throughout the country. After discovering that these companies were doing fraud the government implemented a new law, that companies could not charge upfront fee for loan modification. However, even with this new law people were still being asked to pay and many of them did.

When these *fraught individuals come to me after being scammed 2-3 times, they appear so *despondent. Most of them just want to forget this whole nightmare and short sale their properties. They no longer believe in any company actually helping them, all they want it to be stress free.

*Fraught- Marked by or causing destress; emotional.

*Despondent- Feeling or expressing despondency; dejected

Introduction

   

     Since this is my first blog entry I will begin by introducing myself. My name is Karen, I am twenty two years old. I was raised in Santa Cruz California, but at the age of seventeen my family and I moved to San Jose. I am a senior at San Jose State University and will be graduation in May 2012 with a major in Political Science and a minor in Psychology. I am in the process of planning my wedding which will take place December 17th.

     My fiancé and I decided to get married through the Catholic Church since both of our parents are devoted Catholics. The experience of planning our wedding has been very exciting but at the same time very frustrating. It has been frustrating because I never imagined the amount of requirements that are needed in order to be married in the Catholic Church. It has been meeting after meeting and class after class.  I understand that certain preparation is needed before marriage but seriously this has gone to an extreme. Today, for example we spent three hours in a couple’s counseling talking about finances and sexuality. The topics we discussed were common sense and extremely superfluous. My finance and I are very overwhelmed with how they have decided to prepare couples for marriage. I asked the priest why the church had implemented all these new requirements and he stated that it was because of the rising divorce rate. He said that according to the Catholic Church all these counseling classes would prepare us and thus, attenuate the chances of divorce. If this is true, we will see.

*1. Attenuate:
        to weaken or reduce in force, intensity, effect, quantity, or value.
*2. Superfluous:
        being more than is sufficient or required; excessive, Unnecessary.